Your future your super legislation

Stapling is a process that will link a person to one super fund and the stapled super fund (or account) will follow the person from job to job, unless they actively choose a different fund. 

Stapling took effect on 1 November 2021 and changes the way you administer super for new employees. 

Stapling encourages people to have one super fund so they’re not paying multiple fees and can maximise their retirement savings. 

Stapling only impacts new employees to your business who onboard after 1 November 2021. It doesn’t impact the super arrangements for employees who started before 1 November 2021.

You must offer choice of fund to all eligible employees. This includes any employee covered under an enterprise agreement or workplace determination made on or after 1 January 2021.

You don’t need to offer choice of fund if super is paid under certain EBAs dated prior to 1 January 2021 that require contributions paid into a particular fund(s). 

By law, you need to provide new employees with a Standard Choice of Fund form (like our Cbus choice of super fund form) within 28 days of joining.

You can also provide a Product Disclosure Statement (and related documents) for your default arrangement if you like. However, you can't recommend that your new employee joins your default arrangement.

You can’t encourage new employees to join Cbus or any other super fund. This would be classed as giving financial advice, which is illegal.

To help you understand what you can and can’t say or do, we’ve put together a helpful list.

If Cbus is your default fund, you can:

• let new employees know that Cbus is your default fund and suggest they visit our website
• provide them with a Cbus Product Disclosure Statement, alongside the Standard Choice of Fund form you’re already providing
• refer new employees to the YourSuper comparison tool on the ATO website or the Choosing a super fund section of moneysmart.gov.au.

You can’t:

• recommend or encourage them to join Cbus (or any other fund)
• give financial advice, or
• ask them to join Cbus (or any other fund) in any meeting, phone call or conversation you have with them. 

Yes. New employees can choose to join your default super fund or nominate their preferred super fund by completing a Standard Choice of Fund form (like our Cbus choice of super fund form) – this is known as an active choice. 

Yes. Your new employee can choose your default fund on their completed Choice of Fund form and then you can make contributions to your default fund.

You must use the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) online services.

You’ll need to enter the new employee’s

• Tax File Number (TFN)
• full name
• date of birth, and
• address details

into the ATO online services to determine their stapled fund.

Once you’ve determined the new employee’s stapled fund, you must make contributions to that account. 

If you have over 100 employees starting at the same time, you won’t be required to complete an individual search for each employee’s stapled fund.

The ATO will provide a bulk upload service (via ATO online services) to allow you to make large volume requests. 

It may take up to five business days for the bulk stapled fund information to be returned to you. 

Your new employee may have more than one super fund. If this is the case, the ATO will use a set of rules to determine which is their stapled fund. These may include factors such as when the account was created, how recently contributions were made and the account balance.

If your new employee would like to change the super fund their contributions are paid to, they’ll need to complete a Standard Choice of Fund form (like our Cbus choice of super fund form)

You can only request stapled fund information after you’ve lodged a Single Touch Payroll event or a TFN declaration. You can’t request the information if they haven’t started work. 

Your new employee will receive a notification from the ATO when you request their stapled fund information. 

If your new employee has more than one super fund, the ATO will determine which is the employee’s stapled fund based on a set of rules. These may include factors such as when the account was created, how recently contributions were made and the account balance. 

If your new employee doesn’t have a super fund, they can choose their own super fund by completing a Choice of Fund form (like our Cbus choice of super fund form).

If they don’t have a super fund and don’t make an active choice of fund, you must pay their super into your default super fund. 

If you pay an employee’s Superannuation Guarantee (SG) contribution to the wrong account, it won’t be classified as part of your SG obligation and you’ll need to repay this contribution into the correct account. 

Cbus insurance is designed for our members. Particularly those who work in dangerous working conditions.

If someone is new to the building and construction industry, they may be stapled to a super fund that doesn’t provide adequate insurance cover for the work they’ll be doing.

Everyone – regardless of whether they’re a Cbus member or not – should regularly check their insurance arrangements to ensure they have the right protection for them and their family.  

Your employees can change super funds at any time by providing you with a completed Choice of Fund form (like our Cbus Choice of super fund form).

There are three major reforms as part of the Your Future, Your Super legislation:

Stapling

A new law ‘stapling’ a member to their first or current super account so that their super follows them when they change jobs. Stapling took effect on 1 November 2021.

Your Super comparison tool

Introduced on 1 July 2021, the Your Super comparison tool helps people compare MySuper products and choose a super fund that meets their needs. The tool displays MySuper products ranked by fees and net returns, so people can compare funds in detail. 

Performance test

An annual performance test comparing super fund performance has been introduced. For the first year, the test only applies to MySuper products and more products will be included from 1 July 2022. If a fund fails the performance test, the fund has 28 days to advise members in that product and a notice will also be published on the fund’s website. If a fund fails the performance test for two consecutive years, they won’t be able to accept any new members until they pass the test.

Cbus has delivered strong long-term investment performance with our Growth (MySuper) investment option. And recently we recorded our strongest annual investment return of 19.34% for the Growth (MySuper) investment return^{^}. See our latest investment performance results.

Best Financial Interests Duty

All super fund trustees are required to act in the best financial interests of their members and provide members with key information on how we manage and spend their money in advance of Annual Members’ Meetings.

As an industry fund, we don’t have shareholders and all profits are returned to members. We know the work we do every day has a real impact on the amount of money our members will retire with. With transparency and accountability, our Annual Report shows how we continue to create value for members.

Yes. From 1 November 2021 if a new employee doesn’t have a super fund and doesn’t complete a Standard Choice of Fund form (like our Cbus choice of super fund form), you’ll pay their contributions into your default fund.